Junction Boys the stuff of A&M football legends

Published 5:30 am, Thursday, April 29, 2010

Dennis Goehring, a walk-on Texas A&M football player, angled to draw some attention during coach Paul “Bear” Bryant's backbreaking training camp in Junction late in the summer of 1954.

So, one day during yet another exhausting practice in the 100-degree heat, Goehring ripped off teammate Billy Huddleston's helmet and punched him straight in the mug. Later that night, Huddleston asked Goehring why he'd do such a thing.

“I wanted the coaches to notice me,” Goehring replied, “and you're the littlest guy on the football team.”

The famed Junction Boys, including pals Huddleston and Goehring, once again drew attention this week — this time to help the little guys.

Twenty-eight survivors Bryant's infamous camp, all in their mid-to-late 70s, came together in a Houston hotel ballroom as part of an Evening with Texas Legends, an annual event that benefits the Texas Children's Cancer Center. Last year, it was four Apollo astronauts, the year before famed surgeon Denton Cooley. This year, it was a collection of stubborn, rugged football players who gave Bear Bryant his only losing season.

“Legends of Texas?” guard Marvin Tate wondered, grinning. “Heavens to Betsy, is it because we went 1-9?”

Tate, of course, knows it's because the Junction Boys have become symbols of perseverance and eventual triumph (an undefeated season in 1956) after enduring Bryant's 10-day journey into the sand burrs and baking heat of West Texas.

Gene Stallings, a Junction Boy who later won a national title as Alabama's coach, said he'd cross his fingers every time the players, pushed to the point of extinction, gathered on a bus and crossed a nearby river in Junction.

“If the brakes would just fail,” Stallings said he would hope, figuring that was a more “honorable way out” as opposed to quitting.

How tough was it?

“Dog fighting isn't allowed anymore, of course,” center Herb Wolf said. “But we had one every day out there. If I wanted your jersey and I thought I could take it away from you, we got down there and got after it.”

A journey by a handful of the Junction Boys into the Texas Children's Cancer Center two weeks ago opened their eyes to youngsters possessing their same fight — and then some.

“It was the experience of my life,” Tate said. “I saw things that I didn't see in Junction. I learned things that I didn't learn in Junction.”

“Most amazing thing you've ever seen,” added Wolf. “You see those children and the situation they're in — but their eyes just light up when you walk in there and bring them a gift.”

The most incredible gift from the experience came in the money raised by the event from more than 1,000 attendees, who listened intently as the Junction Boys told their stories: $668,000 to support the children's cancer center, thanks in part to a 1-9 team.